Traveling Tales: Golden Sun in a Modern World
by Rawr Power
Summary: Mia is a normal 17 year old girl barring blue hair who perpetually babysits her little siblings. But when she gets caught up in a plane hijacking, she begins a quest that will change the world forever. Mudshipping, possible others later. T for language.
1. Of Terrorists and Little Sisters

Travel is one of my favorite things ever, so its not much of a surprise that I thought of this while planning for a trip to China in two weeks. I've been on those ginormous plane rides before, and they really do suck! Using my experience for that and a whole lotta time staring at a blank page, I came up with this AU story for Golden Sun, keeping the characters' basic personalities in. Mia may come across as a bit of a smart-aleck, but aren't all quiet ones in their heads?

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I woke up staring at a 27,000 foot drop. 'Course, having just come out of a dream where I had fought off an army of pirates with the assistance of Batman, having the clouds _beneath_ you can be a shocker. No more in-flight movies and Diet Coke at the same time for you Mia. No thanks to Jack Sparrow and his pals, I had to do a little reality check for a sec. Oh right, the plane. Oh right, the Pacific Ocean. Oh right, my face was stuck to a window. I peeled my face off the little sheet of Plexiglas, stood up, and took a good look around the plane. Drat, no lights on and no slightly smelly meal in the area. Still five hours more to go. I plopped back down into my seat, where a big squarish smiley face appeared to be floating at eye level.

"Good morning sir or madam! We are now approximately: Five. Hours away from Hong Kong" said the hideously perky smiley, with the five being thrown in as if in afterthought. Ignoring it, I poked it in the eye and watched some movie options flash on the screen. Yuck, nothing but Meet the Spartans and the new Rambo. Turning off the screen, I sat back in my seat and watched the clouds below seem to swirl through different pink-stained forms in the morning sunshine. I paused and thought about China. I was heading for Beijing after changing planes at Hong Kong. Dirty, smelly Beijing. If it were up to me, we would be landing outside the city, not going "back to the crap" as my kid brother puts it. Oh well, the suburbs are always better than the city proper, that being the land of lung cancer and pirate DVDs being sold by God knows who. Of course, I don't know if you could say Mentougou District is a suburb, since most of its farmland, and thank God for that. We get to stay in a big stone farmhouse in the countryside right underneath these huge mountains and next to a little lake. Evidently these Chinese guys took a cue from Gone with the Wind or something and built this old pile like 50 years ago that looks exactly like what you'd find on an old American farm. And no ones really been in it for 5 years, imagine that. That was when I felt the little itching on my eyes, telling me to go to sleep. Stupid random sleep urges.

"Five more minutes." I said aloud, earning a funny look from Megan who was sitting next to me. No cigar. I was asleep before my face hit that favorite of pillows, the Plexiglas window. This time, the dream was on ninjas.

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Let me get this straight. My name is Mia Aquos, and I'm a 17 year old American girl moving to China. My mom's advertising executives thought it would be absolutely hilarious to make us move there, even though she does most of her work at home on a laptop. Then there is the rest of my family. Justin and Megan were your regular generic brand, 100 Saturday morning cartoon raised little kids who still think potty jokes are side-splitting hilarious and pull pranks on a regular basis. Usually, this makes them fit for death. Back home in northern California, if if Justin did _anything,_ he'd wake up trapped in his room with his door duct-taped closed. My father on the other hand, is dead. He died from cancer just after Justin and Megan were born. I wish to God he hadn't, but that's how things roll. I have to play second parent to Justin and Megan most of the time since Mom spends most of her time in her office doing something clever with advertising propaganda. But life is good, except for the fact that I have no social life. I don't think the semi-rich kids who live up in Northern California understand what being a mom means, but since I kinda do (barring duct-taping people to their beds), I'm pretty much an outcast since I never have time to go to the movies with boys, or worship cheerleaders or what ever it is popular girls do. That's not to say I don't like to have fun, just no time.

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I woke up two hours later. The sun out the window had graduated to regular yellow light, flooding the plane enough so that they didn't even bother with the lights. Better, I woke up just in time to keep them from dumping the regular airline crap on my lap. Buuuut, something was wrong. Of course. It took me all of five seconds to notice that Megan had pulled a Houdini and vanished. I groaned inwardly, thinking I'd rather not turn into Jodi Foster today and lose your kid on a _plane_. What disturbed me even more was the fact that there happened to be a boy my age that took her place. He was close to my height with a shock of dirty blond hair, and he appeared to be snoozing. I'm not sure what the disturbing part about him was, that Megan appeared to have morphed into him or the fact that a boy my age happened to be sitting next to _me._ More importantly, where was Megan? I stood up and did a aisle by aisle sweep of the plane. Nope, no Megan. Jodie Foster, eat your heart out. Sitting back down on my seat, I began to think up a plan. Instead of dashing around the plane like... well, like Jodie Foster in that dumb movie, I probably should just get the boy next to me to take me to Megan. I wouldn't have wanted to be him in that moment. My mind sifted through the various options of dealing with him. Maniacal rage w/ a side of maiming, going Jodie Foster and screaming "TERRORIST!" at the top of my lungs, or simply asking him what the hell was he doing there, what is his name, and where is my little sister. I opted for the latter, 'cuz maniacal rage, especially the maiming part is sure to get you thrown in prison, screaming terrorist on a plane ditto.

"Hey you, wake up! What are you doing there?" Cracking open an eye, I noted was bizarrely the exact same azure blue as my own, he struck back

"I could ask the same for you." popping open the other, he cocked an eyebrow, and did one of those little eye-chuckles that I find impossible to master. Oh, I could have punched him right there. Especially when my cheeks betrayed me right there. Damn you cheeks, stop turning red. Ok, close one there, only a little bit. Hopefully he won't notice...

"Hey, why are you blushing? Just a little question."

Dammit.

"You shut up. A couple of hours ago, my little sister about yay high was sitting where you have your butt planted, and you are going to tell me where she is right now or have child-molester tattooed on your ass for the rest of your life, capeesh?

"Whoa, slow down. First tell me your name. I promise I am not a child molester, or may the courts vigorously tattoo my ass."

"Mia Aq-- Hey, wait a sec, why am I giving you my name? My threat of ass tattooing is still very real."

"Ok, I surrender. My names Isaac Apollon. I'll help you look for your sister. I promise I didn't take her, it would be pretty stupid for me to take her seat if I had taken her." He stood up clumsily, as if he had been sitting down for twelve hours (which he probably had).

"Kinda paranoid that someone took her? Let me guess, _Flightplan_?" mind reading, another reason to punch him. I guess he saw my pissed expression, because he continued.

"Its okay, its not like that happens in real life. Have any ideas about where she'd be?"

"Yeah, she said something once about being a pilo-oh god, the cockpit. I thought that earthquake in my dream was just that, an earthquake. Not "turbulence"." I groaned and pushed past him, heading for the cockpit. I was intercepted by a flight attendant on my way.

"Hey, let me through! Is my little sister in here? She should have been up here"

Hearing this, the blood drained out of the flight attendant's face. Yup, Megan was here. She didn't need to say anything, just point to the sign saying bathroom on the wall. By now, Isaac had caught up with me.

"Hey. Is she up here? No? Geez, what fresh hell is your sister to freak out Bev here?"

"Hey, you know this lady? Why?"

"My dad's an avionics engineer, which is a fancy way to say he works with the little electrical doodads in the cockpit, so we travel a lot. Sticking around planes for like a million days is a way to get on first name terms with your friendly flight attendant. 'Course, his job aside I was going back home while he stays at LAX messing with one of their bigger planes."

"You live in China? But you don't look Chinese, and you have an American accent." yeah, this was me talking. Miss I'm-gonna-move-to-Beijing.

"Yep. Its kinda hard for him to find a job, and when he finally got one his bosses sent us over there."

"Heh, kinda like my—wait a sec, Megan will have blown up half the plane by now. Crap, c'mon." and with that, I just pulled him up the stairs. I have no idea why they put stairs on an _airplane_, but thats how it works. And why would they put the bathroom up there anyway? If it sprung a leak or something there would be stuff everywh—eugh, I don't wanna know. Anyway, there was a line outside the bathroom. Typical Megan. She's fallen asleep in those things before. Dragging her out of scuzzy water is not my idea of a good day. Dragging Isaac with me, I dashed up to the front of the line.

" 'scuse me, but is a little girl in there about yay high?" The poor man, doubled over in evident pain, shook his head weakly

"Megannnn..." She was not making this easy. Of course, he could be wrong but I really didn't want to burst into something ugly in there. I settled for scanning the upper deck. Crap, not there. Time for reinforcements. Isaac had slunk off somewhere, so I went to go find him. He was in the cockpit, talking to the stewardess who had helped us earlier. Getting details, I hoped. I really didn't want to contend with a flirt right now.

"Hey, found her?"

"No. Dammit Megan can wreck a day sometimes. Only _my_ sister will disappear on a plane."

"Yep, my twin sister would do that sort of thing all too often when she was younger, 'cept she tended to set things on fire. Stupid Jenna." he chuckled.

"Pyro sister?"

"Yep. When she was five, she wanted to be a professional arsonist when she grew up. No lie. Her Christmas list that year? Gasoline, a flamethrower, bottle rockets, and 10 M80s. She didn't get anything except a sparkler. That night, we found the sparkler lit in the kitchen with the gas tap on. That was when she started counseling"

"Wow, and I thought my sister was bad. Are all little sisters the same?"  
"Actually Jenna's two minutes older, I'm the youngest of triplets with Jenna being the middle. My brother Felix is oldest."

"Oh."

"Yeah. They won't let me forget that. Ever. Wait a sec, I know its off topic, but why are you looking after your sister so much?" I gave him a quick run through of my life (or lack thereof) and my babysitting duties.

"Yeesh, your father died? That sucks."

"Tell me something I don't know. But now, its my turn to go off topic, why did you sit with me in the first place? Its not like people get up and change seats during plane rides." And the truth will set him free. Not trying to be obnoxious, just want to know. I stared at him and he blushed just a little bit. Hah! Payback.

He shifted uncomfortably and said; "Well, truth is, I couldn't sleep in with Jenna snoring her head off. You should be thankful she's on the upper deck, I would be surprised if anyone can sleep up there. So, that seat was the only one open" my paranoid self smelled something fishy. That was _by far_ not the only empty seat, I'll bet its rare for a whole plane to be full with all the pain at the pump right now.

"You liar. That isn't even the closest seat to the front of the plane, let alone the only empty one. Try again and make it believable this time, I doubt your sister snores that loud."

"Actually she does, I just threw it in with the rest of the lies. Yes, Guilty as charged. OK, so I looked out the window and just so happened to see a giant floating one-eyed rock-

"Don't even start with this crap" I warned.

He chuckled a little and said: "Alright, the truth now: I need someone to talk to. Jenna can be, well, an ass and my bro sleeps through plane rides, he hates I mean HATES them with a vengeance. I was just kinda bored and you're the only other person my age on the plane. I--

A voice came on the intercom, cutting Isaac off. I really was starting to hate these stupid airlines, but I started to think differently as the words echoed through the plane.

A deep, masculine voice said: "ALL OF YOU, SIT IN YOUR SEATS AND BE QUIET! This is a hijacking! You will not be harmed if you do not panic." Dead silence. I thought what everyone else must be thinking: 9/11. What are they going to do with us? Were we destined to wind up smashed into paste on some building in Hong Kong? Right then, I would have been contented to become a gibbering wreck, and very nearly would have, if it hadn't been for Isaac. Right then, his eyes flashed and it was as if he became a different person. An angry, vengeful person. Muttering something about his uncle, he jumped up. I pulled him back down and hissed in his ear "Where are you going? Y'know those are terrorists right? The terrifying I-blew-up-New-York kind."

"Yep, and I don't care what kind they are. They are dead." he said the last words with such venom that any terrorist standing there would probably have pissed his pants, ran for the airplane door, jumped, and splatted.

"Why? They probably have knives or something. You'll get yourself killed!"

"Dammit Mia, let me go. My uncle died on 9/11. He was on flight 93." that shut me up. The vengeance in his eyes was painfully obvious now. Duh Mia, why didn't you think of that? You even saw that movie too. Stupid! I let him go and he stood up and strode for the cockpit. The plane still was in eerie silence as I watched him stride up the aisle confidently, along with all the other passengers. I was probably the only one on the lower deck not thinking "what is that idiot doing?"at that point. After he walked out of view, I waited. I am not proud to say that I waited, but I did. And that waiting was the worst I may ever have experienced. What must have been only five minutes seemed to stretch into hours. I didn't want the guy to die, I considered him a grudging friend now that he at least tried to help find Megan. Thats when I stood up and took after him, heading for the cockpit. There were signs of a struggle, with some unconscious passengers, but no Isaac. Halfway I almost tripped over a body. I bent down for a closer look and with a shock I realized...

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I love cliff hangers, but you might not. You might want to tie me to a tree and beat the everliving s out of me. Anyway, it was a little long because I originally intended for it to be a oneshot, but I decided I liked Mia's voice to much and I grew a story out of it. Yes this story will have a mudship if you haven't been paying attention. A special cookie to those of you who have read my other story and discovered that that its valeshipping. If mudshippers are republicans and valeshippers are democrats, than I'm an independent so leave me the hell alone P. R.P.


	2. Of knife throwers and bad PMS jokes

Oh wow, sorry about the long absence, I was on aforementioned China trip and had some family business to tend to. Didn't help that I had giant writers block in China with this story, I did however come up with and write a chapter of another original story, might post it on Fiction Press soon., if I do I'll put the link to my FP author page on my FF one. I've decided to focus more on this story than my other one, as people seem to like this more. Also, I will answer any reviews I get, I like constructive criticism, etc, so please help me make this story better. Anyways, back to story.

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_I didn't want the guy to die, I considered him a grudging friend now that he at least tried to help find Megan. Thats when I stood up and took after him, heading for the cockpit. There were signs of a struggle, with some unconscious passengers, but no Isaac. Halfway I almost tripped over a body. I bent down for a closer look and with a shock I realized..._

_..._That it wasn't Isaac. Seriously, I was kinda expecting that the body was Isaac. He must be someone special to have not been killed by a terrorist yet (I hoped). The guy looked average, but the long knife he had clutched in his hand kinda ruined that image. He also looked knocked out, with a big ugly bruise already forming on his head, and one of his arms had broken in the fall. Wait, whoa, how did I know that? I had no medical experience whatsoever. Weird, but I'd deal with it later. Instead, I headed for the cockpit. I walked two more bodies carrying knives, one with another nasty bruise, and one looked like he had fallen on his knife. Despite the fact that yes, dead bodies, especially the kind lying in pools of their own blood, are gross, I wanted to reach down and help them (terrorists, weird I know) but I also let a little internal cheer out.

Go Isaac!

Seriously, how did he learn how to take down a load of terrorists on his own? I reached the end of the aisle, and I saw Isaac staring down another terrorist with a knife stolen from one of them. Carbon fiber and wickedly sharp, some Section 7 guy told me later, perfect for fooling airport sensors. Anyway he simply flicked the knife toward the T-shirted terrorist. The knife spun lazy arcs through the air, whistling lethally as it made its way toward the hapless terrorist. You know what happens next right? Psych! The knife only beaned him with its hilt (is that what its called?) rather than sliding into his brains. Good. I was glad that Isaac wasn't a killer. Why I was glad he didn't kill the bastard I had no idea. But anyways, a knife (which is heavier than it looks) beaning you in the head when thrown at 30 miles per hour, HURTS. Not that I'd know, but sure looked (and sounded like it) when the knife smacked his head with a resounding crack and he just kinda fell to the floor. Isaac gave a half-smile and then relieved him of his knife, then turned around and saw me.

"Mia, what are you doing here?"

"You might wanna tell me why your good with throwing knives first. Kinda obvious I was worried about you, no?"

He blushed faintly and said "I just kinda knew how, its really weird, but as soon as I grabbed one of their knives after beaning one, it was like the the knowledge kinda popped into my head. I know, strange." That was weird, I'd seen all those ninja animes (reliable source, right?), where the characters take like 10 years to master those things.

He handed me the knife, with a 'just in case look' on his face, then took off for the cockpit again. I followed him, but as we came into the cockpit, I realized that I had finally found Megan, with a knife gripped to her throat and tears in her eyes.

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Lying about 200 feet away was the means to blow the plane out of the sky. In the comparative darkness of the jet engine hood, a soft red light lazily flicked on and off every few seconds. This red light was in turn attached to a plastic box with an antenna poking out the side. What was inside this box? A kilogram of C-4, wired to a wireless detonator, and enough to blow the wing of the aircraft right off. In the jet on the other side flicked the same red light. It would be hypnotic if anyone could see it, the kind of hypnosis a snake uses on mice before it eats them, that is.

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Megan was held by a tall man in an Armani suit who was clearly a terrorist, not just from the knife he had pressed to her throat but also the aura of...y'know...dare I say it...terror. He just radiated cruelty. I don't know how I knew that, but it came to me instinctively. He talked lowly to the pilots, probably stuff like "If you turn around I kill the girl" and all that. Psh, the guy had probably seen too many movies. That didn't matter though, he still played the villain every bit as well, and he meant business, even with the dark blue hair. Yes, blue hair, like mine. Stupid genetic defects. I guess he heard us come in 'cuz he wheeled around and backed up protectively, carrying Megan with him.

"Back up or the girl dies!" Yeeesh, the guy _had_ seen too many movies, hello cliché. Didn't stop me from wanting to rescue Megan though. Shes my little sister for God's sake and the SOB had a knife pressed into her throat. Isaac was evidently cooler than me at that point, rather tough considering he was the one who rushed down an aisle filled with knife toting terrorists, because he had to literally grab my shirt to keep me from ripping the guy's spine out and beating him with it. After I calmed down (mostly), the man evidently figured out that the cavalry hadn't burst in to save him yet, because he asked "Where's my men?"

"Unconscious and beaten to a pulp." Isaac said confidently, as if he were the one holding the hostage.

He excepted the fact without a word, his eyes flicking like slot machine wheels, looking for a way out. I probably should have gotten Isaac to flick his knife at him right there while I made a distraction, and the insanity that happened next probably wouldn't have happened. The asshole pushed the fire alarm. I don't know what good the fire alarm would do for the people on a plane 37,000 feet in the air, but for the people in the back it was the last straw. How would you feel if your plane was simultaneously hijacked by terrorists and on fire? Scared, yes. Panicking, probably. We heard screams over the din of the wailing sirens and in that moment of hesitation, the man dropped the knife, grabbed Megan, and bowled right past us. Gotta hate the clever ones. About that time the pilot decided he had had enough of people in his cockpit and yelled "Get out!" at us. We obliged, and we heard the cockpit door locking a few seconds later. Outside, it was in chaos, people were everywhere, screaming, crying, praying, what have you. You'd be surprised at what people who think they are in the final seconds of their life would do, but none of that was helping. The man had gotten away and that was that, taking my sister with him.

"Isaac, where do you think he went?" I said over the din

"He could be pulling a D.B. Cooper suicide and parachuting out the back of the plane, or he'll just wait for the flight to be over, make some kind of distraction, then dash out the back airstair, but either way he's probably back there." he replied, blue eyes thoughtful. "I hope he takes the second option, because he'll probably take Megan with him and running down one of those airstairs in flight is suicide at best."

"Alright, but more important, how do you plan to get these people to calm down? They're going insane!"

The captain (what a nice guy) answered the question for us, turning off the fire alarm and giving an all clear over the intercom. Yikes, too late, some lady thought I was a terrorist, maybe the knife was a clue? So she throws a sprite at me. Great active rebellion lady, c'mon Sprite, try maybe a Coke or perhaps a Dr. Pepper. Of course, I acted on instinct. Sprite or not, she was throwing something. So I crossed my arms and put them over my face and...wha? Bam, frozen Sprite sitting on the ground, almost like it froze in midair. The hell?? But Isaac was already running down the aisle, dodging around frequent flyers happily kicking the sad looking terrorists. I followed, stuffing this new X-files worthy tidbit away for later.

"Hey, where'd he go?" We'd reached the back of the plane, and Isaac wasn't happy.

"Hey you're Mr. 'Oh wow, I know all about airplanes'. Isn't that your department?"

"Ummmm yeah, I guess he could have gotten down a trapdoor or something. Sure?" He smiled weakly and shrugged. Ah great. I got down on the ground and started checking for handles. After a quick moment, Isaac found one.

"Down here Mia" he said, sliding down into the darkness (great, why is it always darkness you have to slide into?)

I took a look at aforementioned darkness, shrugged, and took the plunge, and a second later, WHOOMPH. That was Isaac.

"Owww thanks, y'know there's a ladder there right?" Isaac groaned, but loudly so he could be heard over the scream of the engines

"Oooops. My bad." In the faint light washing down from above, there was a metal ladder glinting dully. I turned around to get a good glimpse of the place I'd fallen into. It was full of cardboard boxes and nets holding luggage down, all shrouded in shadow but still visible in the light from the hatch and the dull soft red of the emergency lights.

"He's gotta be in here somewhere, probably jumped up in the luggage somewhere."

"You're right, there's nowhere else he could go." Isaac stared up in the luggage, searching for that guy's weird flash of dark blue hair (great, Mia of the fluorescent blue mop).

"Check up that stack Mia, I'll go over here" gesturing around, Isaac than headed for his particular mountain. I shrugged and headed for the stack. 15 minutes later, I was drenched in sweat, tired, pissed at Isaac, and ready to punch that blue haired asshole straight through the face. _Wow, my sister really needs to just sit down and sleep on planes, whenever she gets up goddamn international terrorists swoop down and pick her up._ I let out a small sigh, barely audible over engine noise._ I really hope this doesn't turn into a pattern, I can't chase after knife crazy bags of douche all the time._ That was when I bumped into Isaac. Seeing my expression, he gave a mischievous smile.

"Do I even need to make a PMS joke?"

Unneeded. Needless to say, he found himself at the bottom of the luggage stack a couple seconds later with a few bruises to add to his collection. I was getting a little sick of him, maybe he should try being more serious occasionally, especially when crazies hijack your plane. Of course, that was when I found the chief crazy, as soon as I recognized that particular cocking noise a pistol makes when primed to kill. I turned around slowly and faced the pistol which was, if you haven't already guessed, pointed at my face. Next to Sir Crazy was Megan, handcuffed to a hatch handle. I indulged myself with another sigh. _These things don't get any easier even when you push annoying morons off people's luggage..._

Okay, nother cliffhanger, I loves them so. Mia doesn't like Isaac much now but she might want his help when the terrorist gets a little trigger happy. But in the mean time, what is that Section 7 Mia slipped and mentioned earlier. And why did that Sprite freeze in midair? (I'm sure you know the answer to that one already) And will the plane and everyone on it wind up slightly deceased? Time, and a whole lot of banging my head against a keyboard will tell. I promise not to be so long next time...


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